Its a funny old world sometimes. Just a couple of weeks after posting on Arthur Grant and whether our favourite beastie had to negotiate a wall to get back to the safety of deep waters, something turned up on eBay. It was a Mexican magazine called Duda issue No.9 from July 1971 devoted to the subject of the Loch Ness Monster. The title "Duda" means "Doubt" in Spanish and they seemed to have published on various mysteries from all parts of the world over the years. A look at the pages displayed on the listing showed that the author had included the Grant case as you can see below.
As was the case with these illustrated magazines, they did like to go a bit beyond what had been reported in the original testimony from the primary source newspapers of the time. The more dramatic the picture, the better the sales I guess. Here we see Arthur Grant fully kitted out in motor cycling gear, leather boots, goggles and all. The creature itself is more threatening than what Grant described with human chomping teeth included. I suspect Grant is a bit too close to the creature here for his own good.
But then the wall appears and the creature clambers over it. The translation from the Spanish reads "and awkwardly climb the wall that separates the road from the loch". One would be interested to know what the magazine's source material was for this account as none I know of mention a wall. Either way, their version of Nessie with powerful hindquarters knows how to get over a wall.
A bit of a fun coincidence. Maybe someone can translate the Spanish and I include the other pages I saw and wonder what report they are referring to when the monster pops up in front of a man in a boat. The one from 11th July 1935 in the adjoining Loch Dochfour is the Mrs Gerald McGrath head and neck account from 11th June 1935 which I include at the end from The Scotsman of the 12th June. The description of two rows of fin like "excrescences" refers to some kind of abnormal protuberances which is quite curious and difficult to envisage without a sketch.
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That's a well done comic strip. A translation is needed to explain why there are three creatures, and the reason for the cheesecake on page 11 and 12. Not that there's anything wrong with that . . .
ReplyDeleteOk. Translation of page 21:
DeletePanel 1:
However, the biggest problem that arose regarding the beast of Loch Ness, were the varied descriptions that the witnesses made of it and that made it difficult to classify the animal.
Girl 1: His head resembles that of a cow.
Girl 1: I am telling you no. It is like that of a seal.
Man: You are wrong. It is like that of a snake.
Panel 2:
What kind of animal was then the inhabitant of the lake? Was it a plesiosaur like the ones that lived 70 million years ago? Was it a gigantic caterpillar?
Panel 3:
Finally, all the scientists who accepted its existence formulated that it was an unknown variety of animal. A case similar to that of fish with lungs whose existence was doubted for a long time, until they were discovered.
AUSTRALIAN DIPNOO
Panel 4:
Given the enormous number of doubts that were raised about Loch Ness, it was decided to do much more research and at a very high cost, but World War II broke out and the project was abandoned.
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So, it seems that the image of three monsters in panel 2, is a representation of the different descriptions and interpretations of Nessie.
Thanks.
DeleteVery nice illustraions, thanks for sharing with us :)
ReplyDeleteThink that refers to nessie head like a snake or a seal, could that be a reference to Eels and seals being mistaken for nessie in the loch at times?
ReplyDeleteHi jesusFan:
DeleteNope; it's not really a reference to actual eels and seals; it's just an attempt to describe the creature's head, with the characters saying it's like a cow's head, like a snake's head, or like a seal's.
Nor is it a subliminal suggestion about the possibility of confusing Nessie with eels and seals, since the two women and the man who say it do not doubt at any time that it is a strange animal and different from anything known.
Greetings.
So you do not think Nessie could be a very large eel, or an unknown long necked seal then?
DeleteHi jesusfan11:
DeleteOh, the truth is that I have no idea what is in Loch Ness and I would not be able to say what kind of unknown animal it is, a monstrous eel, a strange seal, some kind of gigantic fish... But I try to keep an open mind and I don't reject anything. I was only referring to the story in the magazine: according to the narration, the characters in the story have no doubt that it is a strange and unknown animal and try to describe it by comparing the shape of its head with other animals. The editorial line of the magazine also went in that direction.
Greetings
Hello again:
DeleteI wanted to point out one more thing about the story. In the story, they use the word "barda"; that is a word that has different meanings in Spanish, but in Mexican Spanish, "barda" means wall, but not in the sense of the wall of a structure; the idea of the word "barda" is to delimit, to separate; therefore, a "barda" can be anything from a ten-foot wall enclosing a plot of land to a two-foot row of bushes separating two gardens. So that "barda" of the story, can be something really small, salvageable without problems.
Greetings
Seems that there must be more then one type of creature been seen in the Loch over the years, as just so many various sightings made!
Delete